Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. I was finally able to put everything together and get all the details for you on Nick’s season just in time for tonight’s premiere. Now, for those of you who have checked this site religiously since filming began, a lot of this will be repetitive. But most of you, probably 90% of you, are seeing/hearing this for the first time, so these episode-by-episode spoilers will catch you up on everything that happened during filming that started on Saturday night, Sept. 24th in Los Angeles and ended on Friday, November Nov. 18th in Lapland, Finland. What a ride. There are definitely some things in these spoilers that I have not mentioned over the course of filming, so don’t just skim through it because you might miss a few things. This is pretty much everything you’ll see this season. It’s all there. All your dates, roses, eliminations, drama, etc. Go check it out. Tell your friends to check it out. Tell your friends’ friends to check it out. It’ll be a rollicking good time for all those involved, I promise. And yes, feel free to use this as you play the new ABC/ESPN Bachelor Fantasy League game. I know I did.
One quick note: tonight after the show ends, Jimmy Kimmel is doing a one hour Bachelor special called Jimmy Kimmel Live: Here For the Right Reasons. And let me guess, he’s gonna do his semi-annual tradition where he magically guesses who the final the final 4 are after reading them from this site, right? Ahhhhh, Jimmy. So creative. Maybe he needs to bring Kirsten Dunst on again and she can fawn all over her love for reading spoilers on RealitySteve.com. That’d be just great. Anyway, this is just a one-time show that Jimmy is doing tonight, not a weekly thing. And there is no “Bachelor: Live” that’s been announced for this season, at least not yet. They’re doing something on Snapchat that goes up every Tuesday morning instead that I’m guessing very few people will care about or be interested in.
Here is the season preview that played during last night’s “Countdown to Nick” special on ABC, and I’m sure the one we’ll see again at the end of tonight’s episode. Man, they are really playing up this “Will he be the first Bachelor to ever get rejected at the end” storyline. Such garbage.
And now a sneak peek at this intense season of #TheBachelor!
Retweet if you'll be joining us for the Season Premiere tomorrow night 8|7c! pic.twitter.com/vq8PzJKf5w— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) January 2, 2017
So here’s every spoiler you need for Nick’s season. Consider this a “Spoiler 101” class that you can impress all your friends with. If you want to hear me go over the spoilers in podcast form and give more thoughts, you can tune in to Episode #5 through various podcasting platforms, or just listen right here:
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Episode 1: (airing Jan. 2nd) Los Angeles, CA (30 girls down to 22)
This is your detailed breakdown of Episode 1 that I posted on Dec. 15th, a couple days after I’d seen the screener for the episode. Since Emily’s season, I’ve had access to the first episode before it airs, and I relay my detailed spoilers of the episode. Here’s what you’ll see in tonight’s episode:
-They do show a small 1 min clip previewing the season, and even if you didn’t read the spoilers, you clearly see a couple shots of Rachel and Nick together wearing oversized clothes in the snow. Well, it didn’t snow in LA. Nor did it snow in Wisconsin when they were there, or New Orleans, St. Thomas, or the Bahamas. So they basically give away in the previews that Rachel made it Lapland, Finland.
-The intro video of Nick himself was rather interesting, because it was shot in Chicago. You know, where he used to live, doesn’t anymore, hasn’t for over a year, and basically has entrenched himself into the LA lifestyle now. Not sure why in the hell they tried to make him seem like a business man from Chicago when he’s not. We then get the proverbial shirtless shots of him working out, then taking a shower, which I believe makes it the 491st consecutive season they’ve done that. Nothing new.
-They also showed clips from Nick’s season with Andi and Kaitlyn, along with the heartbreak he suffered in each. A heartbreak which he quickly rebounded from I might add to hop on another show. No mention of Paradise or anything with Jen, so, I guess that wasn’t heartbreak even though he pretended it was at the time and is basically one of his all time biggest lies ever on the show. That break up speech at the end was full of so much bulls**t, I expected it to be sponsored by a manure company. He played Jen from Day 1 and we’ll leave it at that.
-Next we see Nick back at home in Wisconsin with his family talking about his next journey as they look through old photos of Nick in high school. He once had frosted tips. Well, he frosted his whole head actually. I guess it became his dream this season when he got to perform with the Backstreet Boys since you could tell in some of those old pictures, he wanted to be them.
-They also made sure to show Nick kicking a soccer ball and getting a lecture from younger 11 year old sister Bella, who has become a staple on these shows. Knowing that later in the season, Nick’s 1-on-1 in Wisconsin with Raven has him going to Bella’s soccer game, then Raven meeting her and talking to her at the roller skating rink is the reason why this segment was thrown in. Bella’s advice to Nick before he leaves: 1) Look them in their eyes 2) don’t mumble 3) let out your thoughts 4) don’t forget family loves you. Is it necessary to put an 11 year old through this again? Apparently it is. Bella is roughly 12 years away from being a contestant on this show, so I guess she’s getting her practice in now.
-Nick ends his “intro” segment by saying “I’m gonna give America a happy ending,” then pausing knowing full well what he just said. For the record, every season the lead does an interview with the media about their upcoming season and most of the time, they play it coy usually saying nothing and ending with, “Well, you’ll just have to watch and find out.” But this season, they allowed Nick to admit that he did find love.
-Next scene was Nick meeting up with Sean, Ben, and Chris as they give him “advice,” despite the fact that Nick’s now on his 4th season of doing the show, and none of them were on more than twice. Yes, I get that it’s the “Bachelor” role, but Nick is a producer’s puppet at this point, so he knows exactly what he’s getting into. But since this is another “staple” of the first episode – having fellow leads show up to offer advice – this was a filler segment that offered nothing substantial. Typical talk that we see every season. “Be yourself,” “You can be nervous,” “Trust yourself” yada yada yada.
-They showed 10 intro video of the girls. Usually they never show more than 7 or 8, but because there’s the Countdown to Nick special airing Jan. 1st and they are going to show this segment during that show, I guess they figured they could include more intro videos this season. The girls who get intro videos were (in this order): Rachel, Danielle L., Vanessa, Josephine, Raven, Corinne, Alexis, Danielle M., Taylor, and Liz. Some notes about these intro videos:
1) For whatever reason, three of the girls introduced themselves in their video packages using their full name: Rachel Lindsay, Danielle Lombard, and Raven Gates. The other 7 just said their first name.
2) Vanessa’s video showed her speaking in French to start, then showed her at her job working with special ed students. Said it’s her life to be a teacher and a mom, and “wouldn’t it be amazing if I came back engaged?” Yes. It’s also the worst kept secret going right now Vanessa. Have fun fending off IG commenters and basically everyone you see for the next 3 months.
3) Josephine and Alexis are the two intro videos that are the “goofy” ones. Josephine basically talks to her cat, then bops around Santa Monica pier doing stupid sh**. Alexis admits she’s goofy and likes to do weird things – like walk to CVS in a sumo suit.
4) Almost all the other intros were serious, straightforward, and just told the audience what they do for a living. Oh wait, they set up Corinne’s “spoiled brat” character by her admitting in her video she has her own nanny. She works from home, with her family running a “multi million dollar business,” but she has someone who waits on her hand and foot.
5) The interesting video was Liz’s because she admits that she’s met Nick before. They show clips from Tanner and Jade’s wedding where she was the maid of honor, then show her dancing next to Nick. She says there was a lot of alcohol that night then you hear a producer off camera ask, “So you spent the night together?” Liz: “Depends on how you define that term. I plead the 5th.” She says that Nick asked for her number that night, but she said no, thinking he was only asking because he was being nice. She says they had chemistry that night and feels that she missed out on an opportunity, so she has some unfinished business with him. This will go well. She did not say specifically in this intro video, “I had sex with Nick,” but she does later.
-Next is the limo entrances which are never show in the order that they actually occurred. And this episode actually had proof of that since in one limo shot, we see 5 girls talking: Dominique, Astrid, Rachel, Christen, and Whitney. However, those girls are not shown coming out 5 in a row when the limo entrances happen as you’ll see. Some notes about the limo entrances:
1) Danielle L. is shown first out of the limo. So much for reading into that. She doesn’t even make final 6.
2) There really weren’t many extravagant entrances this year, just a lot of cheesy one liners, but about halfway through we got 3 sexual innuendo entrances from girls. Hailey was the 15th limo exit and she says to Nick, “Do you know what a girl wearing underwear says? Neither do I.” I’m sure her parents are proud.
3) She’s followed by Astrid, who talks in German saying, “I know you are in touch with your sex life. Have you seen the breasts? They are real.” All Nick could make out of her German was the word sex. Shocking.
4) Liz followed Astrid, and as she’s getting out of the limo, we hear her in an ITM say, “Before tonight, I actually met Nick at Jade and Tanner’s wedding, and there definitely was a connection and chemistry there and we had sex…” When they greet, she never says her name, and she wants to see if he recognizes her. He has a look on his face the whole time like he knows her, but never references they’ve met before. When she walks away, Chris Harrison comes up to him and acts ridiculously stupid pretending he doesn’t know anything saying, “One of the girls in the last limo, you gave an odd look to…” and Nick responds “I think I met her before at Jade & Tanner’s wedding…” Chris doubles down on this horrible acting with, “You think you know one of the girls here?” Nick: “Yeah…I’m almost certain. 99% sure.” So yeah, this song and dance couldn’t be more scripted if they tried. Nick didn’t know she was showing up that night and I’m sure it took him a few seconds to jog his memory, and since she didn’t say anything, I’m sure he was questioning if it was her or not. But Chris Harrison acting like a dumbass pretending like he was clueless to who she was is laughable.
5) They showed Nick having some comments after girls had walked away and almost entered the mansion. For Corinne, he said “She’s cute.” For Vanessa, he said “That’s a keeper.” For Raven, he said, “really cute voice.” Raven is from Arkansas. A very thick Southern accent.
6) In keeping up with their weirdness from their intro videos, Josephine and Alexis made sure to do something in their limo entrance. Josephine brought a book that had a hot dog inside it, opened it up and said, “You’re a weiner in my book.” Then asked if they could do Lady & the Tramp with the hot dog each taking a bite out of the end. Nick I’m sure had stomach issues all night after that.
7) Alexis (the last limo entrance) as you’ve probably seen, wore a shark costume all night, even though she insisted she was a dolphin. Even thought it was a shark and everyone, including Nick, made sure to tell her that every chance they could get. Her intro? “I dolphinately can’t wait to talk to you inside.”
8) Only other real memorable entrance was Lacey who arrived on a camel saying, “Heard you like a good hump.” Outstanding.
-Once inside, there was basically zero drama all night amongst the girls. The only “mini” drama, if you can even call it that, is when Nick was talking to Vanessa, they cut to an ITM of her saying she thought he was gonna kiss her, but Corinne (who we’d already seen have time with Nick and she said she wanted to kiss him) comes from around the corner and steals him away. Corinne then says she has something for him and makes out with him, while plenty of other girls see it. Something that essentially happens every season of this show, hence the reason I called it “mini” drama the first night because that was the extent of it.
-They show Nick talking to a lot of women throughout the course of the cocktail party, but the ones we see him having an extended conversation with are: Rachel (the first one he talks to), Christen (teaches him to dance ballroom), Corinne (gave him a bag of tokens), Vanessa (says a friend submitted her, wanted the Bachelor to be Nick), Corinne again (for her kiss), Alexis (in the pool making dolphin noises), and Liz (to talk about their night at Jade & Tanner’s wedding).
-Nick and Liz’s talk was all kinds of awkward. This is how the conversation went:
Liz (in an ITM): “I’m kinda glad he didn’t remember we had sex. I like the mystery of it. Hmmmm, lets see.”
Nick (sits down next to her): “So…how are you?”
Liz: “I’m good, I’m good. I thought that I’d be maybe way more overwhelmed and nervous that I am and I’m not.”
Nick: “Well, we’ve met before.”
Liz: “Ahhhh, you remember.”
Nick: “I do remember.”
Liz: “Ok, I didn’t think that you would.”
Nick: “You didn’t think I’d remember?”
Liz: “No. I honestly didn’t.”
Nick: “When you got out of the limo, I was like, ‘Wait, is that Liz?’..
Liz: “I thought that you gave me a weird look…”
Nick: “And after you said goodbye, I’m like “That’s f***ing Liz.”
Liz: “Honestly, I didn’t want to say anything because…I guess like, I didn’t want you to think I was here because, like, you’re the Bachelor.
Nick: “That’s a fair assumption…You know, I remember being very intrigued by you when we met at the wedding. And you know, we had such a wild and crazy night of…and then I remember like when I kinda asked for your number, and you were like, “Oh, lets just leave it,” and I was like, “Oh ok. Totally respect that, totally cool, but, like it’s kinda like well why haven’t I heard from her since then? You know, it’s been like 9 months. (Clearly scatterbrained at this point) Like, I’m not a big on the whole right reasons thing, but at the same time in fairness, you gotta appreciate like my number is very easy to get for you. Jade has my number.”
Liz: “Well, I don’t think I really wanted to be like ‘Hey, gimmie this person’s number’ or whatever. I truly believed that if we were supposed to cross paths again we would. And I did have a stereotype. I’m not gonna lie. Ummmm, and then I watched ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ this year, and I was like, ‘Wow, this guy seems very self aware’, like maybe way different than what I thought. And you seemed very, kinda knowing who you are and what you want…”
Nick (seemingly almost annoyed by her at this point): “Wait, so you had a…I felt like you had a stereotype after…based on what you said it sounds like you had a stereotype after we met.”
Liz: “No, no, well…”
Nick: “But you said it wasn’t until Paradise that that stereotype…”
Liz: “Well the thing that I loved about that…
They were then interrupted by someone coming out wanting time with Nick, Liz asks her “Can I have one more question” then Nick basically has his cue to get out of this conversation going nowhere so he says he wants to make time for everyone and they hug and part ways.
Liz (in an ITM): “It was hard hearing from him ‘Why haven’t I heard from you’, when I didn’t even think he remembered who I was. I did have the opportunity to reach out to him over the last 9 months, and…I didn’t. And so it’s very hard to know where we stand at this point.”
After watching their whole interaction here’s my take: I think Liz had every right to have the stereotype about the guy after the hookup at the wedding. And if she didn’t want to give him her number afterwards, she didn’t have to. With that said, and although I think Nick was acting too butt hurt that Liz said she stereotyped him (because Nick absolutely cares what people think of him and is uber sensitive about any negativity thrown his way) he had every right to be annoyed she appeared on the show. She had her chance with him (for however many minutes that actually would’ve lasted in real life. C’mon, do you honestly think that if she gave Nick her number that night, they’d have dated, he never would’ve went on Paradise, he’d never have been the “Bachelor”, and they’d still be together now? Please), but she messed up and now he doesn’t care to be with her. Bottom line: she should’ve never gone on the show, but the producers loved the story line, convinced her it’d be a good idea, and set her up to fail. They knew how this was going to end. She didn’t.
-Rachel gets the first impression rose, even thought Corinne and Vanessa are in ITM’s thinking it might be them based on the “connection” they’d formed with Nick earlier in the night. He pulls Rachel aside, gives her the rose, and they kiss. Not a full makeout, but not a peck either. Put it this way, Corinne’s kiss with Nick definitely more of a makeout than the one with Rachel.
Rose Ceremony Eliminations: Jasmine Brown, Olivia Burnette, Lauren Hussey, Ida Marie, Briana Guertler, Susannah Milan, Michelle Ramkissoon, and Angela Amezcua.
The 22 girls remaining after night one are (in alphabetical order):
Alexis Waters
Astrid Loch
Brittany Farrar
Christen Whitney
Corinne Olympios
Danielle Lombard
Danielle Maltby
Dominique Alexis
Elizabeth Whitelaw
Hailey Merkt
Jaimi King
Jasmine Goode
Josephine Tutman
Kristina Schulman
Lacey Mark
Liz Sandoz
Rachel Lindsay
Raven Gates
Sarah Vendal
Taylor Nolan
Vanessa Grimaldi
Whitney Fransway